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Tuesday, 18 July 2017

NCC approves Etisalat Nigeria name change, company unveils new logo

Nigeria's
telecoms regulator has approved Etisalat Nigeria's name change after
its Middle East parent pulled out following regulatory intervention
to save the local company from collapse due to debt, the company
said.

The
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been notified of the new
name, 9mobile, the company said, adding that Etisalat Nigeria had
started the process of rebranding. The company is due to unveil the
new brand on Wednesday.

"Etisalat
Nigeria wishes to inform its over 20 million subscribers, government,
regulatory agencies ... the telecommunication company has changed its
name to 9mobile," 9mobile said.

The
move was to ensure business continuity of Nigeria's fourth largest
telecom operator, it said in a statement.

Etisalat
Nigeria had been in talks with its lenders to restructure a $1.2
billion debt after it missed repayments but the discussions failed to
produce a deal, forcing the banks to step in.

UAE's
Etisalat terminated its management agreement with its Nigerian
business in June and gave it three weeks to phase out the brand after
it had to surrender its 45 percent stake to a trustee because of the
debt crisis.

Under
Nigeria's telecoms law, the NCC has to approve a transfer of telecoms
licences or any new investor in a telecoms company with more than 10
percent of the shares.

Etisalat
Nigeria's lenders have now taken control and appointed a new team to
manage the company with a focus on getting it back to profitability
while working to eventually raise new capital.

Copyright 2017 Expy Multimedia. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.expymultimedia.com as the source.